Protecting peatland areas can be a cost-effective way to reduce as much
as 10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new report
launched December 11 in Bali, Indonesia. “Just like a global phaseout
of old, energy-guzzling light bulbs or a switch to hybrid cars,
protecting and restoring peatlands is perhaps another key ”low hanging
fruit’...for climate change mitigation,” said Achim Steiner, United
Nations Under-Secretary General and the executive director of the UN
Environment Programme (UNEP).

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Peatlands are wetland ecosystems that accumulate plant material over
time to form layers of peat soil up to 20 meters thick. They are
present in 180 countries, cover 3 percent of the world’s surface, and
store an average of 10 times more carbon per hectare than other
ecosystems. Peatlands are also home to a large share of the world’s
freshwater resources and are critical in biodiversity conservation,
including for species such as the orangutan and certain cranes.

But peatlands are in danger. Each year, clearing, draining, and setting
fire to peatlands emits more than 3 billion tons of carbon
dioxide—equivalent to 10 percent of global emissions from fossil fuels.
Human activities and climate change post a particular threat to
mountain and coastal peatlands as well as to permafrost, the melting of
which may increase emissions of methane, another powerful greenhouse
gas, in some areas, according to UNEP’s Steiner.

The new report, compiled by a multidisciplinary team, is the first-ever
assessment of “the relationship between peatlands, biodiversity and
climate change...on a global level,” said Faizal Parish, director of
the Malaysia-based Global Environment Center, which coordinated the
study. The authors urge the international community to integrate
wetlands conservation into climate change adaptation and mitigation
strategies. Investments in peatland protection and restoration can be
up to 100 times more cost-effective than other carbon sequestration
measures, says Ahmed Djoghlaf, executive secretary of the Convention on
Biological Diversity.

Marcel Silvius of Wetlands International stresses the importance of
adopting appropriate climate mitigation measures on peatlands.
“Cultivation of biofuel crops such as soy, oil palm, or sugar cane on
peatlands generates much more CO2 emissions than saved through fossil
fuel substitution,” he says. “Construction of wind farms and hydropower
reservoirs on peatlands also generate significant emissions,” he adds.